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We reinforced our organization's image as a leading advocate for sustainable food.
Across all platforms and media, our monthly reach consistently ranged between 450,000 and 2 million people.
Finland’s mass catering offers a strategic opportunity to pilot scalable approaches to institutional change.
Viral Vegans supports both institutions and companies throughout the plant-based food transition process—from crafting compelling plant-based policy pitches, to hands-on implementation support, and follow-up guidance to ensure the change leads to measurable outcomes.
By emphasizing the environmental, health, and economic benefits of plant-based policies, we engage a broad range of stakeholders across sectors and political backgrounds.
Each year, we engage with more than 100 influential food system stakeholders, while advising major institutions such as the City of Helsinki, HUS Helsinki University Hospital and the Jussi Awards, Finland’s national film awards, on advancing plant-based food in practice.
We shape the public narrative around food by making plant-based shift visible, credible and emotionally engaging. In 2025, our work reached up to 2 million people per month across social and mainstream media, grew our audience to 93,000 followers and generated more than 50 media hits across mainstream media.
We bring food system change into the places where public opinion is formed: social media feeds, national media, festivals and political events. With Finland’s most popular sustainability podcast, a bestselling non-fiction book, viral educational videos and over 30 speaking engagements across seven countries, we make the climate, health and animal impacts of food understandable and newsworthy.
In 2025, Viral Vegans further strengthened its role in the national conversation on food systems, expanding its networks across politics, media, academia and civil society. Throughout the year, we engaged with Finland’s Prime Minister, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, and influential policymakers in both Finland and the EU.
This growing recognition was also reflected in new positions of trust. Executive Director Benjamin Pitkänen was appointed to the Climate Change and Nature Youth Group under the Prime Minister’s Office, named to the University of Helsinki’s 30 Under 30 list, and joined the ProVeg Youth Board.
Viral Vegans has become a go-to source for Finnish media on topics related to veganism, food policy, and animal rights. We’ve been featured in over 100 media stories across television, radio, podcasts, and print — including Finland’s top morning shows, where our appearances reach up to 500 000 viewers.
We are a sought-after keynote speaker at leading events across Finland, including TEDx, SuomiAreena, and top conferences in the food industries and book festivals. Our appearances shape public opinion, inspire institutional change, and embed vegan perspectives in the heart of mainstream discourse.
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To expand our impact beyond typical vegan circles, we’ve strategically appeared on highly popular podcasts and YouTube channels that focus on politics, health, culture, and food. These appearances help us engage non-vegan audiences, shifting public narratives.
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Social media is where culture is shaped today. It is where people form opinions, consume news and encounter misinformation. That is why Viral Vegans treats social media as a core impact arena, not just a communication channel.
In a country of 5.6 million people, reaching 450,000 to 2 million people per month and building an audience of over 93,000 combined followers gives us national-scale influence. We use that reach to counter misinformation, translate research into content people actually understand, and bring food system change, animal rights and sustainability into the mainstream.
Our podcast, The Hot Potato, is Finland’s most listened-to sustainability podcast, with over 430,000 streams across all major platforms and YouTube.
The podcast regularly features high-profile guests, including celebrities, top politicians, bestselling authors, and influencers with massive mainstream appeal.
Executive Director
Looking ahead to 2026 and 2027, we are more motivated than ever to scale our impact. We plan to bring new people onto our team to help grow the entire food sustainability movement.
Our whole team is very excited as we work toward our long-term vision of making Finland the world’s plant-based capital.
Your support helps us build a more plant-based food system through media, education and policy advocacy.
At present, the minimum donation we can accept is $500. Your donations will be processed through our fiscal sponsor, the Karuna Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Please ensure to specify "Viral Vegans" as the intended recipient when making your donation. Please contact us at info@viralvegans.fi if you wish to donate less than $500 or have any questions about donating to us.
Your donation helps us build a more plant-based food system through media, education and advocacy.
Our goal is to make plant-based choices an easy part of everyday life. In collaboration with businesses, cities, and policymakers, we promote a plant-based food transition that makes the food system more sustainable and climate-friendly.
